David Brown
Well-Known Member
Last week a friend of mine, who has just started the serious training of his young Lab, asked to borrow my dummies and starting pistol to introduce the dog to noise with retrieves. I have had this gear for many years and as its a while since I used it last had to dig deep in the loft to find it. He duly took kit away and the first morning out in the stubble field behind his house with permission of the owner he started training. Now this is a very rural area with only a scattering of houses all quite distant from the field so he was surprized to see a figure striding towards him. The man turned out to be an unemployed ex-policeman who he has had bad blood with in the past over him blocking his drive with a vehicle. The guy asked him if he had a license for the pistol and when he was told it was a blank firer the lad said as it was not painted orange and looked to be front firing to him,it was illegal under the Violent Crime Reduction Act. My friend was shaken and feared he had committed an offence which could jepordise his firearms license so hurried to return the goods to me. This got me quite worried. I made a few calls but didnt want to land myself in bother so most was done unofficially. However it does seem that this act has outlawed the use of blank firers with a few exemptions, puppy training is not one of them, but if you dress up as James Bond for enactments you could be exempt! You can own a blank firer with no license provide it is orange and is top or side venting ( mine is in fact top venting) . Also its use in a public place could be troublesome and since the right to roam legislation virtuly makes all open land accessable to the public I dont know how you would stand if reported to the police while in a field. This to me is just another chipping away at our freedoms. One of the reasons given for the change in law is that if police firearms response see a lad armed with an orange pistol they will know it isnt real. I wonder when the first drug dealer will spray his real Glock orange to confuse. David